Mallam Yakubu Lamai is the Director of General Strategic Communication to Nasarawa State Governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule; he was in Lagos for the 10th anniversary of Top Society Magazine, where he was given the award of Excellence in Public Communication.
He used the occasion to shed more light on his principal’s efforts to rid Nasarawa State of bandits and make the State attractive for investors. It has been adjudged one of the top three states attractive to investors in Africa.
There is a report that Nasarawa State is facing security challenges. How has the government been able to tackle these challenges? Primarily attacks from bandits when one is leaving Benue and passing through Nasarawa to Abuja.
Lamai said: “Nasarawa State is without any doubt the safest, most secure State in the entire North Central. In 2017, Samuel Ortom passed the anti-grazing Bill into law in Benue State. Then, the Fulani herders started rushing into Nasarawa State. From that particular flux, Nasarawa became a safe sanctuary for everyone because of the level of peace.
“In 2019 on May 29th, when governor Abdullahi Sule became governor of Nasarawa, the first place he visited one month later was Benue State. He visited Ortom when the relationship between Nasarawa State and Benue State was frosty, just to rekindle and strengthen neighbourhood ties and work on the border. Since then, it has been smooth sailing for Nasarawa State.
“The reason Engineer Sule has overemphasized security is that, he wanted from 2019 to change Nasarawa State into an Investor haven, you cannot bring investment to any state that has crisis.
“First and foremost, around Akwanga, Engineer Sule facilitated the building of the police Mobile College between Nasarawa Egon and Akwanga.
“When you move into Lafia, in 2020 when Darussalam, the terrorist group tried to settle in Nasarawa Otu, away from Keffi, Engineer Sule was proactive, he went to the president then Muhammadu Buhari, the president then approved a joint attack on them, to uproot them, because they were trying to use Otu as launching pad to attack Abuja. The Police, the army, the airforce, the military joined hands to attack them and cleared them from that particular zone.
“Immediately,what happened at that time was not Benue, Kogi, Taraba, and certainly not Kaduna South but Nasarawa State. Buhari now approved the building of an Air Force reconnaissance base in Lafia,which looks after the entire North Central region using the launching pad of Lafia airport.
“Going beyond that, the Lafia Airport itself Engineer Sule went to the federal government and said to them that the federal government have only Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja and suggested that Lafia Airport should be used as an alternate security airport and do military survey and keep the armament and so on, and federal government bought the idea and agreed to pay Nasarawa State $9billion, which is just being processed now by President Tinubu.
“When you come into Nasarawa State and move along Shandam Road, which has the government house, you will see the police headquarters with some of its facilities. You will also see the Air Force base. The air force is being used for reconnaissance, and there are special forces that look after the entire North Central.
“Then we have what are called super military camps. There is one in Kenyiahu. Kenyiahu is between Keffi and Nasarawa. That place used to be a notorious kidnapper’s den. In the last five years, the kidnappers have been wiped away.
“That is why the State has been attracting investors. In fact, in Otu, where the Igbira and Basa are fighting, we are still able to get flour mills from Lagos to come and cultivate cassava.
“The point I am trying to prove to you is that, check the records; in the last five years, you may have instances where you have mentioned that somebody will say there was a kidnapping incident here, but when you talk of security, the full meaning security Nasarawa State is the most secured, that is why it has become among the top three best State most attractive states for investment in Africa.”
